The son of a merchant who gave up his riches, Francis of Assisi made poverty an ideal and turned the religious conventions of his time on their head.

Some Paleolithic burials are exceptional. Dated around 25,000 BC, they are far more complex and decorative than we usually give the era credit for.

The European Union is based on an incomplete economic union and banking union. Without genuine sovereignty at a European level the currency remains ‘incomplete’.

The dollar remains the world’s reserve currency. Could China upend American hegemony?